Jonathan chose to borrow to pay salaries rather than chop off money for other projects. For example, he wasn't borrowing to pay fuel subsidy of more than 1 trillion naira annually. Whether that was a good decision is up for debate. And by the way, GEJ borrowed majorly from within the country. So, he envisaged that when paying back, the money stays in the country.
Haha, brotherly, borrowing to pay salaries is one of the clearest things that a government should NEVER do. If the government's hands are so badly tied that it is has to borrow money to pay salaries, then that is one clearest signs of impending doom.
LordAdam7: What you fail to understand is that GEJ and NOI knew how to pilot Nigeria through 18 months of oil drop without a recession setting in. If GEJ had continued in May, he would have held the fort steady for another 8+ months before the prices started rising in 2016.
Nigeria would have NOT entered a recession if GEJ was still the president. And I'll give you a couple of examples why:
Oil prices began to drop mid-way into 2014, i.e. from about 3Q 2014. From 3Q 2014 to 2Q 2015, I'm not sure i understand how you arrived at 18 months, that's more like 9 months to me.
With that aside, I'm keen to get more details of how wonderfully well you claimed GEJ and NOI handled the economy when oil price began dropping because within this 9 months period, the following happened (prove me wrong if you can):
(1) Nigeria's GDP growth rate steadily dropped from 6.54% to 2.32% as at the time of handover (of course it continued dropping after the new govt took over until we got to a recession but after looking at the chart below, I find it rather weird and outrightly callous that many intelligent folks like yourself still argue that recession was all Buhari's fault (not even oil price is blamed by you guys).
(2) In desperation to save the economy, $10 billion was expended from the nation's forex reserves to defend the Naira (between Nov 2014 and May 2015), hence our reserves crashed from $38.5bn to $28.5bn as at handover, but even with that huge amount, the Naira still crashed inevitably from N165 to N220/N230 at the parallel market. And this was despite the fact that Nigeria still drilled 2.2million barrels daily and oil prices still sold above $60.
Of course with the dangerously low funds in the reserves, it would have been foolish to keep disbursing FX further to save the Naira hence the new admin instituted forex restrictions to prevent a Venezuelan situation (zero reserves). But of course the restrictions gave a big hit to the Naira and chased away loads of investors who could clearly see Nigeria was already in a mess. You do not need a soothsayer to tell you the Naira wouldn't have fallen beyond N250 and we wouldnt have been in this mess had there been adequate money in the reserves to be disbursing $10bn every six months as NOI and GEJ did. That is why smart economist (including NOI herself) still blame the govt of GEJ for not saving nada.
(3) I don't need to re-mention the fact that GEJ and NOI were already borrowing to pay salaries (a clear disaster), fuel subsidy was already being owed importers for the full 9 months period spanning from Aug 2014 to May 2015; of course this forced importers to halt importation for fear that the new govt may not pay them either, and this led to the harshest fuel scarcity in Nigeria's history in May 2015 when even banks had to start shutting by 12 noon for lack of diesel to run generators.
In summary, I'm sorry bro, your claim that NOI and GEJ handled the crash very well is very flawed, baseless and borne out of ignorance of what really transpired. GEJ and NOI were just divinely lucky enough to bailout before the pangs of the impending recession started getting to ordinary Nigerians on the streets and of course the scapegoat Buhari took all the blame when the eagle eventually landed. You may want to argue that they may have done something differently further down the line had GEJ won, but that is only an ASSUMPTION which cannot be substantiated. Fact is that they can only be sensibly judged based on their performance that we saw between 3Q 2014 and 2Q 2015.
Since 1999, oil price has fallen 3 times under 3 different PDP governments. All 3 governments were able to manage it without any negative growth EVERY SINGLE time. With that 100% record, there is no rational human being that wouldn't say Nigeria's economy had a hell of a lot more chance riding the 2013-2016 price drop under Jonathan than under a medically-, academically-, and intellectually-unfit ex-dictator and coupist who did not improve himself one bit in over 30 years outside Aso Rock.
-Lord
Oh yes oil prices have fallen a couple of times and the harshest was in 2008 when oil prices crashed from $148 to $35. But just incase you aren't aware, that crash of 2008 lasted only 6 months between mid-2008 to early 2009. In addition, it is on record that the CBN then, disbursed a whooping $20billion into the market to bail Nigeria out of that global crisis and that was the only reason Nigeria survived it and the pangs weren't felt; remember that $20billion was readily available to be disbursed simply because OBJ had accrued massive savings.
Now kindly remind us of how long the present oil price crash has lasted? It's approaching 3 years now... and while you are at it, kindly remind us how much NOI and GEJ left in the reserves for Buhari to utilise in balancing the effects?
Please while we all agree Buhari isn't doing enough to stem the economic crisis we are presently in, kindly stop insulting our sensibilities by claiming GEJ was any better when it is simply clear they both experienced totally different situations.
Are this daft? Was Jonathan not borrowing to pay salaries few months before he left? Was he not owing some Ministry workers before he handover to Buhari? If a well developed and rebased economy that Jonathan acquired and developed was still that strong, I very sure that a whole FG with strong developed economy that have not collapsed will still borrow to pay a recurrent expenditure such as salary. Is just like you are telling me that a father that can not meet up the demand of feeding his house is highly buoyant.
Summary is that Jonathan had destroyed the strong economy he once built by his reckless way of life and corrupt associates and handover already distressed country economy which later manifested on change of government. Just imagine if CBN had not bail out Union bank then, the next MD will be tagged a failure not knowing that the then big, strong and reliable bank then was just a walking corpse.
I don't like holding brief for any administration but aren't we borrowing under the present government? Is the country getting better or worse it? How many companies left Nigeria since May29, 2015? How many retrenched staffs? Which government in our history has the kind of Budget that this government operated on in 2016 and the proposed 2017 bill?
Haha, brotherly, borrowing to pay salaries is one of the clearest things that a government should NEVER do. If the government's hands are so badly tied that it is has to borrow money to pay salaries, then that is one clearest signs of impending doom.
Oil prices began to drop mid-way into 2014, i.e. from about 3Q 2014. From 3Q 2014 to 2Q 2015, I'm not sure i understand how you arrived at 18 months, that's more like 9 months to me.
With that aside, I'm keen to get more details of how wonderfully well you claimed GEJ and NOI handled the economy when oil price began dropping because within this 9 months period, the following happened (prove me wrong if you can):
(1) Nigeria's GDP growth rate steadily dropped from 6.54% to 2.32% as at the time of handover (of course it continued dropping after the new govt took over until we got to a recession but after looking at the chart below, I find it rather weird and outrightly callous that many intelligent folks like yourself still argue that recession was all Buhari's fault (not even oil price is blamed by you guys).
(2) In desperation to save the economy, $10 billion was expended from the nation's forex reserves to defend the Naira (between Nov 2014 and May 2015), hence our reserves crashed from $38.5bn to $28.5bn as at handover, but even with that huge amount, the Naira still crashed inevitably from N165 to N220/N230 at the parallel market. And this was despite the fact that Nigeria still drilled 2.2million barrels daily and oil prices still sold above $60.
Of course with the dangerously low funds in the reserves, it would have been foolish to keep disbursing FX further to save the Naira hence the new admin instituted forex restrictions to prevent a Venezuelan situation (zero reserves). But of course the restrictions gave a big hit to the Naira and chased away loads of investors who could clearly see Nigeria was already in a mess. You do not need a soothsayer to tell you the Naira wouldn't have fallen beyond N250 and we wouldnt have been in this mess had there been adequate money in the reserves to be disbursing $10bn every six months as NOI and GEJ did. That is why smart economist (including NOI herself) still blame the govt of GEJ for not saving nada.
(3) I don't need to re-mention the fact that GEJ and NOI were already borrowing to pay salaries, fuel subsidy was already being owed importers for the full 9 months period spanning from Aug 2014 to May 2015; of course this forced importers to halt importation in fear that the new govt may not pay them either and this led to the harshest fuel scarcity in Nigeria's history in May 2015 when even banks had to go start shutting by 12 noon for lack of diesel to run generators.
In summary, I'm sorry bro, your claim that NOI and GEJ handled the crash very well is very flawed, baseless and borne out of ignorance of what really transpired. GEJ and NOI were just divinely lucky enough to bailout before the pangs of the impending recession started getting to ordinary Nigerians on the streets and of course the scapegoat Buhari took all the blame. You may want to argue that they may have done something differently further down the line had GEJ won, but that is only an ASSUMPTION which cannot be substantiated. Fact is that they can only be sensibly judged based on their performance that we saw between 3Q 2014 and 2Q 2015.
Oh yes oil prices have fallen a couple of times and the harshest was in 2008 when oil prices crashed from $148 to $35. But just incase you aren't aware, that crash of 2008 lasted only 6 months between mid-2008 to early 2009. In addition, it is on record that the CBN then, disbursed a whooping $20billion into the market to bail Nigeria out of that global crisis and that was the only reason Nigeria survived it and the pangs weren't felt. Kindly remind us of how long the present oil price crash has lasted? It's approaching 3 years now... and while you are at it, kindly remind us how much NOI and GEJ left in the reserves for Buhari to utilise in balancing the effects?
Please while we all agree Buhari isn't doing enough to stem the economic crisis we are presently in, kindly stop insulting our sensibilities by claiming GEJ was any better when it is simply clear they both experienced totally different situations.
Billyonaire: I do not think I have time to read any write up by the unstable mind who jumps on the fence every now and then. A man should be known by a predictable content of character. To be very frank, there are people today who can give their lives to prove that Buhari is doing wonderful, and yet there are some of us who believe Buhari is the worst thing to happen to Nigeria since the civil war.
As rational humans, we need to seriously look at Nigeria in a very wholesome way. This man Buhari is following a fractured law that has killed Nigeria gradually. Buhari is a robotic arm that simply follows the laws to its mission while protecting 'his own people'.
Let us come out all of us that believe we love Nigeria to say that we can not operate 3 or more constitutions, Sharia, 1999 Constitution, Local customs and tradtions as well as Jungle Justice System are all forms of laws operable in Nigeria.lol. We must come to say that Quota System, Federalism as we used today, nepotism, tribalism have to STOP. If we do not accept to stop these vices and Unify all the laws into a single constitution, then Lord Lugard's experiment ends. There is no way to mend this everlastingly, without re-discussing our togetherness.
Every other steps taken is just a gum on the temporal forced union.
Let us stop blaming Buhari. He is just a sick robotic arm of our tomfoolery. Make we dey fool ourselves dey go. Soon, Ghana go dey deny una VISA.
Boy! This was finger licking good!!
Like...
How can you have an Emir here an Oba there, a Chief somewhere, constitutional courts by day, sharia courts by night.
We are just so divided, but like crabs in a barrel, we'd rather all die in the barrel than allow ourselves to be free.
When you mismanage your salary today, you will suffer tomorrow.
Borrowing hundreds of billions to pay salaries and looting your treasury dry and decimating your forex reserves to pay salaries when oil was selling for $100 per barrel, it means you are going to suffer when oil starts selling for $40.
Jonathan introduced recession back in 2014 and Okonjo promised to come up with more austerity measures in January 2015, less than 5 months before PMB.
Educate yourself first before ranting.
so what policies has PMB implemented? from 222/$ to 510/$, high cost of living, no increase in minimum wage(even war torn countries earn more) etc in 2 years.. you honestly can't blame all that on GEJ..
We should be talking about solutions here and not blaming someone, if you are the CEO of a company and you keep blaming past CEO's for the current situation of the company after 2 years do you think you will still have that job, the board/Nigerians already know the person heading the office in the past messed up greatly and you were hired to fixed the problem and not to blame past persons for 2years..
so what policies has PMB implemented? from 222/$ to 510/$, high cost of living, no increase in minimum wage(even war torn countries earn more) etc in 2 years.. you honestly can't blame all that on GEJ..
We should be talking about solutions here and not blaming someone, if you are the CEO of a company and you keep blaming past CEO's for the current situation of the company after 2 years do you think you will still have that job, the board/Nigerians already know the person heading the office in the past messed up greatly and you were hired to fixed the problem and not to blame past persons for 2years..
If you mismanage your money or emptied your bank account today after making a lot of money, you will suffer the effect tomorrow so obviously, your actions yesterday will dictate your situation today or determine if you are going to eat or not or pay your bills or not. It's common sense and basic logic.
Yes we should talk about solutions, but the OP decided to play the blame game and fed us ignorance instead. This topic should have been about solutions instead of the ignorant ramblings and ignoring how we arrived at this sorry state.
You and the OP are free to start with solutions and I'll contribute my own solutions too.
If u are 20+ and actually typed this (@ bolded).... I have one advice fr you. Dnt always expose your ignorance on public forums.
Google has all d answers and u r still this clueless.....
Infact I want to submit my eyes plzzz
Shut up empty head, can't you brain comprehend even such simple statements, I was being sarcastic & trying to say we should look inward & not always depend on imports, Buy our own stuff with naira, Nigerians keep worrying about dollar because they import even ordinary toilet paper.
oyinkinola: ...the analysis of the op is totally absurd and bias and is disrespective to this administration 1 comparing two years of this administration to 16 years is unfair, 2 close up eyes on the action of mllitancy in Niger delta, biafran agitator towards Nigeria situation is wickedness. 3 the drop in oil price below 1 tier of the time of pdp should not be over emphasise by any analysist. 4 this government had fufil the two priorities promise to nation...war on terrorism and war on corruption! Nigerian wants more indeed!
he is not biased in any way, he listed the achievements and flaws of every administration from obj~yar~gej~pmb with statistics to back up his claims. He totally analsed all the economic development in Nigeria from 1999 till date. Remember these people wailing here re the same people that campaigned n voted for PMB in 2015. Nigerians voted for CHANGE, stop giving them reasons and give them results. The economy that obj melt z far worst than the economy handed over to PMB, yet obj never blamed the military, rather, he put mercenaries in place and piloted Nigeria to greatness. The problem with PMB z that he dropped all the good economic blueprints of the past government cuz of sentiments, yet with no alternative plan, he view PDP as an enemy, not as a political opponent. And most of the people he appointed were based on their contribution to his election, not based on their capacity. The voice of the people z the voice of God. If he continue giving excuses, #NigeriansWillDecide again come 2019, just like the way they decided in 2015.
Sir TonyeBarcanista, you are the OP sir and i never expected this from you. you could have been civil in your reply. the bolded takes away the glamour in your reply. #pleasebecivil
Mr "Learn how to read and comprehend". what i asked was a simple question that simply required a yes or no answer.
Replying a post with insult is now customary on among nigerian youths. It baffles me that we no longer know how to be civil in replying a post. Must we resort to insult? No mater how obvious, fact finding, glaring or beautiful your comment is, the moment you add insultive word(s), it loses substance. Lets learn to respect others opinion and be civil in our comment. We are all here debating on how our leaders are not getting it right, insulting each other will never get us out of the mess we are. lets stop the blame game, lets put out religious, ethnic and political sentiments apart, let us as youth
Did pdp or goodluck cause the 1983 buhari's regime recession
Of what relevance is your pointless question?
I showed you a video with okonjo and jona explaining to us that they failed to prevent what we are going through today when Nigeria was making a lot of money and you are asking me silly questions
nduchucks: The OP'S write-up smacks of profound ignorance of basic micro and macro Economics, monetary policy and other major factors which affect GDP, unemployment at the national level, and foreign exchange rates.
Understandably, it is difficult for most people to wrap their hands around N1 billion, let alone the hundreds of trillions of naira siphoned out of the coffers of the government of this great country.
The damage done by the last government in particular, will take much more than 2 years to repair. The sufferings of many Nigerians at this time is very unfortunate but unavoidable.
Insha Allah, by the time Buhari finishes draining the swamp, the next crop of leaders would build on a foundation which would also suffer from corruption, but manageable corruption.
So what should Nigerians do ? We voted for change but we are getting excuses . Obj didn't blame Abacha like this. Abacha left $3bn for Obj. Tjus administration should learn to take responsibility.
If this is all you could write, you are a COLOSSAL disgrace to the entire Nigerian youths, you are also a great INDICTMENT to the TENETS of GOOD GOVERNANCE,
So you don't know that there is a difference between ECONOMIC GROWTH & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
With all the data that you claimed was achieved under GEJ, did it make YOUR life better under your hero of corruption?
Despite the having the biggest rebased economy, how is our quality of life better than that of South African under GEJ?
Has it made Nigeria developed than South Africa, Ethiopia or Rwanda?
You did not explain how $47 billion reduced to $30 billion with oil at an average of $100bpd but you could blame the governors for the ECA?
You did not mention how Sanusi was booted out of CBN for blowing whistle on the missing $20 billion under GEJ
You did not talk about our ARMS MONEY were shared by Dasuki for politicians under the direction of GEJ
You also forgot the BLOODIEST RECRUITMENT conducted in the history of Nigeria by by Abba Moro whom GEJ refused to sack
You did not mention how Nigeria was disgraced by South Africa with the over $15 million found in Oritsejafor's private jet
You failed to tell us why Okonjo Iweala was borrowing to pay workers salaries despite the oil boom,
You did not tell us what happened with Stella Oduah's BMW
Or have you for gotten the Andrew Yakubu's loot?
What about the $15 million MEDICAL FEES of PEJ?
You failed to mention how Tompolo had 13 billion naira in his account?
What about Obanikoro's confession that GEJ ordered him to ferry over 4 billion naira to Fayose?
So, all these did not put Nigeria in a sorry state?
Every time I read your article, I'd always thought you meant well for Nigeria not knowing you can't be a good Councillor let alone a President
ONCE MORE, you are A DISGRACE to COMMON SENSE!!!
YOU ARE LIKE THE PERSON YOU ARE ATTACKING, listen to yourself
If you mismanage your money or emptied your bank account today after making a lot of money, you will suffer the effect tomorrow so obviously, your actions yesterday will dictate your situation today or determine if you are going to eat or not or pay your bills or not. It's common sense and basic logic.
Yes we should talk about solutions, but the OP decided to play the blame game and fed us ignorance instead. This topic should have been about solutions instead of the ignorant ramblings and ignoring how we arrived at this sorry state.
You and the OP are free to start with solutions and I'll contribute my own solutions too.
believe you me, if i should handle that budget i'll most likely save us billions of naira or even trillion. why don't we start their. getting a better economic team will go a long way. as much as it pains me to say, we need ngozi okonjo-iweala help/consult, we need all the help we can get right now..
you still sound like you blame GEJ for all that is happening to us, GEJ is the biggest scam non to man but PMB is really not far behind..
Sir TonyeBarcanista, you are the OP sir and i never expected this from you. you could have been civil in your reply. the bolded takes away the glamour in your reply. #pleasebecivil
are the bolded really necessary sir?
Replying a post with insult is now customary on among nigerian youths. It baffles me that we no longer know how to be civil in replying a post. Must we resort to insult? No mater how obvious, fact finding, glaring or beautiful your comment is, the moment you add insultive word(s), it loses substance. Lets learn to respect others opinion and be civil in our comment. We are all here debating on how our leaders are not getting it right, insulting each other will never get us out of the mess we are. lets stop the blame game, lets put out religious, ethnic and political sentiments apart, let us as youth
bro i did not insult anyone, i never have and never will. if you go through my past comments i actually complained about this.
In May 2015 when President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated as the 15th President of Nigeria, a lot of expectation was placed on him especially when factoring his numerous promises. Though, I will be fair to him by not judging his performance based on some of his ridiculous and unrealistic campaign promised.
PRE-BUHARI ERA Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Since 1999, Nigerians have been desirous of a better deal from successive administrations for different reasons, a demand that peaked in 2015 which saw the sacking of the former ruling PDP administration of Goodluck Jonathan to usher in the present Buhari government.
While President Olusegun Obasanjo was credited with his economic revolution that saw our external loan of $36 billion cleared, external reserve risen from a paltry $1.5 billion in 1999 to $45 billion in 2007, Excess Crude Account risen from $0 in 2004 to $25 billion in 2007, the entry of Mobile Telecommunication giants and crashing of phone tariffs, the various industrialization and promotion of local content that helped in agricultural growth, Nigerians were upset with the government due to its failure to fix power/electricity despite sinking $16 billion for the project. Despite the fact that Nigeria GDP maintained a growth of 5.5% in 2000, 6.7% in 2001, 14.6% in 2002, 9.5% in 2003, 10.4% in 2004, 7% in 2005, 6.7% in 2006 and 7% in 2007 from the 3% it obtained in the Abacha era, despite the fact that the administration created the two anti-corruption agencies, EFCC and ICPC- agencies that fought corruption to the point of prosecuting high ranking party members and officers of government , despite the fact that NAFDAC that fought successfully the scourge of fake drugs under the leadership of Amazon and Heroine Professor Dora Akunyili, Nigerians wanted more. Nigerians were upset with the government because the citizens expected more especially political stability, strengthening of INEC, The Police Force, The EFCC and ICPC and other institutions of the State. On the strength of the Naira, Obasanjo government deliberately and repeatedly devalued the Naira from 22/$ in order to allow for industrial revolution and give it its real value, which was pegged at 120-125/$ in 2007.
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua In 2007, Obasanjo was succeeded by Umaru Musa Yar’adua of the PDP, who came through a somewhat controversial election. The late President would rather institute policies to see to the strengthening of institutions like INEC by initiating the electoral reforms. Musa Yar’adua went further to implement several court judgments that was ignored by Obasanjo, he created the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to tackle the problem of the region and initiated Amnesty process to pacify agitators in the creeks. The government reviewed the deregulation policy of the downstream sector by the Obasanjo administration and relaxed the pump price of petrol from N75/ltr to N65/ltr in order to accommodate the yearnings of Nigerians. Yar’adua was more of a pupilist President that reversed the power policies of Obasanjo and also reversed the sale of the country’s dilapidated refineries just to please labour leaders (actions I consider to be unfortunate). Under Musa Yar’adua, the country experienced a GDP growth rate of 7.2% in 2008, 8.3% in 2009 and 8% in 2010. To the credit of Yar’adua, the external reserve grew from $45 billion that it inherited in 2007 to $63billion in 2008 but finally at $47 billion in 2010 when he unfortunately died in office but depleted the Excess Crude Account to $9billion after the government partly yielded to the demand of governors. In 2007, Naira was exchanged in the range of 120-125/$ and was left at 150-155/$ in the parallel market, achieving a 20% increase. Nigerians wanted more.
Goodluck Jonathan When Goodluck Jonathan took over government he continued with the electoral reforms of Yar’adua, he further implemented court judgments and signed the Freedom of Information Act. Jonathan took the agricultural revolution of Obasanjo to another level, a policy that saw a 25KG bag of rice falling to N8000 and a relative affordability of prices of other agricultural products. Under this era, Nigeria managed to achieve a single digit inflation rate under the administration, the government also achieved relative success in power decentralization and road and rail construction. The government was however unpopular due to the depletion of the reserve from $47 billion it inherited to $30 billion it left it, the depletion of the Excess Crude Account from $9 billion it inherited in 2010 to $2.1 billion despite oil boom period- no thanks to the demands of state governors to “share the money”, which most of them couldn’t justify. The government was also accused of not doing enough to fight corruption and even accused of being corrupt; the ongoing arms probe is more of an indictment. A further dent was the failure to tackle BH insurgency. Though the government inherited the naira at N150-155/$, it left it at N199/$ official rate and 220/$ in the parallel market. Despite the flaws of the government, the administration achieved GDP growth rate of 5% in 2011, 4.2% in 2012, 5.4% in 2013 and 6.3% in 2014. Nigerians wanted more and brought in the Buhari administration with hope that he would achieve it.
PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI ERA When this President came in, Nigerians were expecting improvement in their livelihood, job opportunities, zero tolerance to corruption, political and judicial stability and consolidation of the gains of the agriculture sector.
Since coming to power, instead of increase in living standard, Nigeria is experiencing massive decrease. Lots of job loss, the GDP that was experiencing marginal growth since 1999 shrank by -2% in 2016, inflation rate increased from 9.6% in December 2015 to a whopping 18.72% in January 2017, achieving over 100% increase. Price of basic commodities has shot astronomically high from what was obtainable before the government came to power. There have been lots of job losses with firms either downsizing or folding up completely. The government that came to power on anti-corruption rhetoric has repeatedly looked the other way in corruption cases that has to do with friends and officers of the administration. For instance, while Olusegun Obasanjo sacked Fabian Osuji, his minister of Education in 2005 over accusation of bribery, Buhari has refused to act on SGF Lawal Babachir, Ibrahim Magu, Rotimi Amaechi, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Raji Fashola and others indicted in one corruption case or the other, an action that has made rubbish his so-called arms probe. The President came with pledge to make public his assets and liabilities, yet, Nigerians have not seen to that. Instead of bringing fresh ideas to government, the President brought in those that were “former this and former that” under former governments of PDP due to their hunger to continue to remain in relevance, despite having nothing of value to offer.
We have a government that is running on the highest budget in the history of the country yet, the masses are crying and dying of hunger. Recession that was hitherto left in economics text books has now become an anthem in the lips of many. The government that pledged against medical tourism in foreign countries is the same government practicing it. To the credit of the government, Boko Haram insurgents are relatively contained but Fulani herdsmen have taken over with minimal challenge. Election in the country is now a case of thug of war as the government, instead of strengthening the electoral body (INEC) and security agencies to be more professional, has instead adopted the abuse of State institutions in the name of “federal might”. While the government instituted Whistle Blower policy, Nigerians are wondering whether the policy does not affect the National Assembly, because the President and the Presidency looked the other way when Kano state Rep member, Hon Jubril Abdul blew a very BIG whistle that has to do with corruption in the House of Representative including himself. In fact, Jubril was punished for daring to blow whistle. Under the administration, electricity tariff has increased by over 100% without a corresponding value of electricity and the power situation which was relatively stable in 2015 has worsened. Naira situation has worsened from official rate of N198/$ it inherited to N305/$ while the “real rate”/alternate market rate increased from N220/$ to N505/$, achieving a shameful 130% depreciation rate within a space of two years WITHOUT any form of industrial growth.
While the government inherited a country withfallen oil price, the oil price has been achieving growth since the second quarter of 2016. In fact, oil price has been at increase since January 2016. For instance, as at January 2016 it sold at $30 per barrel, in April 2016 it sold at $41/barrel, it sold at $52.62 per barrel in December 2016, $54 per barrel in January 2017 and now it is selling in the same region, but withot anything to show for its growth.
Nigerians, including those that supported the administration are yet to understand the kind of government in place. Nigerians wanted a better deal and improvement in livelihood but are getting the complete opposite of what they signed up for in 2015. It is an indictment on the administration that some people are crying that things weren’t so bad previously (that is not to say previous governments were Eldorado).
Two years on, instead of counting our achievement, the masses are lamenting woes. The government keep blaming past administration yet without any solution to myriads of problems. What if Obasanjo had spent his time blaming the military regimes of Abacha and IBB? Nigeria is such a sorry mess.
President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigeria, he has made Nigeria a mockery in the committee of nations, it is only God that can give the Nigerians the grace to endure and survive his unfortunate leadership till 2019 when they will have opportunity to kick out the government for good.
May God Bless Us All And Bless Nigeria Shared on palmchat
Were u in owerri this week I saw someone who looks like u
[s]Did PMB made Jonathan and Dasuki loot and share our money?
Did PMB made Jonathan and PDP loot $20 billion power funds?
Did PMB made Jonathan borrow hundreds of billion to pay workers salaries when oil was selling for $80 per barrel?
Did PMB prevent Jonathan from investing the largest accumulated revenue in the history of Nigeria?
Did PMB prevent Jonathan from building infrastructures?
Did PMB prevent Jonathan and 16 years of PDP from giving us 24/7 power supply?
If you are going to defend 16 years of PDP and 5 years of Jonathan, start by showing us what they did with the largest accumulated revenue and earnings in the history of Nigeria.
If the PDP and Jonathan did so great for Nigeria and the economy, then why keep borrowing hundreds of billions till 2015 when PMB entered office ?
Answer my questions[/s]
.
Clearly u are loosing it, when I read this pointless wierd (non- sequitor) questions, I had to check again d poster and was disappointed that u wrote these lame stuff, I have seen better arguements from you, Buh this post...smh
Tho unlike you that don't attempt my questions (u always use propaganda to avoid em')
Lemme attempt urs
For d records am not partisan. I believe a good leader can come frm any party but
With the largest GDP, GEJ
- kept dollar around N200 and N220 in parallel mkt.
- made Rice N8000
- we had more jobs (+180, 000 people kept their jobs)
- we had more companies operating (+272 companies)
Anyone can borrow, just like buhari wants to do, Buh we will see d impact of his borrowing to our economy.
Meanwhile can u tell me d current prices of these commodities in Ur area....
Now Nigerians don't care about who borrowed what, we want Food to be affordable and this is like Rocket science to Ur messiah who promised us change.
He should bury his head in shame... In London causing more pressure on the naira, cuz he's spending Forex which coulda been used for importation of Raw materials
Haha, brotherly, borrowing to pay salaries is one of the clearest things that a government should NEVER do. If the government's hands are so badly tied that it is has to borrow money to pay salaries, then that is one clearest signs of impending doom.
Says who?
Oil prices began to drop mid-way into 2014, i.e. from about 3Q 2014. From 3Q 2014 to 2Q 2015, I'm not sure i understand how you arrived at 18 months, that's more like 9 months to me.
With that aside, I'm keen to get more details of how wonderfully well you claimed GEJ and NOI handled the economy when oil price began dropping because within this 9 months period, the following happened (prove me wrong if you can):
(1) Nigeria's GDP growth rate steadily dropped from 6.54% to 2.32% as at the time of handover (of course it continued dropping after the new govt took over until we got to a recession but after looking at the chart below, I find it rather weird and outrightly callous that many intelligent folks like yourself still argue that recession was all Buhari's fault (not even oil price is blamed by you guys).
(2) In desperation to save the economy, $10 billion was expended from the nation's forex reserves to defend the Naira (between Nov 2014 and May 2015), hence our reserves crashed from $38.5bn to $28.5bn as at handover, but even with that huge amount, the Naira still crashed inevitably from N165 to N220/N230 at the parallel market. And this was despite the fact that Nigeria still drilled 2.2million barrels daily and oil prices still sold above $60.
Of course with the dangerously low funds in the reserves, it would have been foolish to keep disbursing FX further to save the Naira hence the new admin instituted forex restrictions to prevent a Venezuelan situation (zero reserves). But of course the restrictions gave a big hit to the Naira and chased away loads of investors who could clearly see Nigeria was already in a mess. You do not need a soothsayer to tell you the Naira wouldn't have fallen beyond N250 and we wouldnt have been in this mess had there been adequate money in the reserves to be disbursing $10bn every six months as NOI and GEJ did. That is why smart economist (including NOI herself) still blame the govt of GEJ for not saving nada.
(3) I don't need to re-mention the fact that GEJ and NOI were already borrowing to pay salaries (a clear disaster), fuel subsidy was already being owed importers for the full 9 months period spanning from Aug 2014 to May 2015; of course this forced importers to halt importation for fear that the new govt may not pay them either, and this led to the harshest fuel scarcity in Nigeria's history in May 2015 when even banks had to start shutting by 12 noon for lack of diesel to run generators.
In summary, I'm sorry bro, your claim that NOI and GEJ handled the crash very well is very flawed, baseless and borne out of ignorance of what really transpired. GEJ and NOI were just divinely lucky enough to bailout before the pangs of the impending recession started getting to ordinary Nigerians on the streets and of course the scapegoat Buhari took all the blame when the eagle eventually landed. You may want to argue that they may have done something differently further down the line had GEJ won, but that is only an ASSUMPTION which cannot be substantiated. Fact is that they can only be sensibly judged based on their performance that we saw between 3Q 2014 and 2Q 2015.
Oh yes oil prices have fallen a couple of times and the harshest was in 2008 when oil prices crashed from $148 to $35. But just incase you aren't aware, that crash of 2008 lasted only 6 months between mid-2008 to early 2009. In addition, it is on record that the CBN then, disbursed a whooping $20billion into the market to bail Nigeria out of that global crisis and that was the only reason Nigeria survived it and the pangs weren't felt; remember that $20billion was readily available to be disbursed simply because OBJ had accrued massive savings.
Now kindly remind us of how long the present oil price crash has lasted? It's approaching 3 years now... and while you are at it, kindly remind us how much NOI and GEJ left in the reserves for Buhari to utilise in balancing the effects?
Please while we all agree Buhari isn't doing enough to stem the economic crisis we are presently in, kindly stop insulting our sensibilities by claiming GEJ was any better when it is simply clear they both experienced totally different situations.
Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla...
1. Growth rate did not drop to negative. 2. Nigeria's rating drop and the Sick One's (PMB) lack of cabinet were the major reasons investors avoided Nigerian like the plague. That would never have happened under GEJ. Don't blame the monetary policy. Because even with the managed float, investors over-subscribed our $1b bond by over 700% recently. 3. Nigeria disbursed $20b and an additional $5b for bank bailout in 2009 primarily because of the Global Financial Crisis. Don't blame it on a 6 months oil price crash. Because if that was the case, GEJ would've used $35b to wedge the 9 month oil price cash. But he used far less, $10b.
Don't think you can rewrite history and get away with it.
GEJ/NOI are miles better than Buhari/Osinbajo/Kemi and the entire band of misfits in the present FG in handling the oil downturn. You can't even deny that if you were bribed. My points still stand, and your poor excuse of a retort just proved you to be a biased fellow nit-picking facts.
You did not retort any of my 7 hefty bullet points why Nigeria would never have entered recession if GEJ was the President. Your inability to do that makes all your 3-numbered quackery gibberish null and void.
I'll leave you to what you know Mr. Noah... [s]so you don't know the reserve what what was use to strengthen the naira [/s]and what do you call that? Pikin! And stop blahing stupid tech that doesn't exist in naija...
It is not called subsidy my friend. Solomon grandi
Subsidising dollar is when dollar is given at 160 to muslim pilgrims way below the the inter bank rate.
Sufficient dollar in our reserve strenghtens d naira, Truth, calling it subsidy is ignorant of you.
Since the tech is still in Nigeria, what is d current rate of rice, for Ur lame mind goodluck subsidised rice to make it N8000
Bro wer r u from Mars
...plz NLders I want to donate my eyes, Nothin left to see in 9ja
Sir TonyeBarcanista, you are the OP sir and i never expected this from you. you could have been civil in your reply. the bolded takes away the glamour in your reply. #pleasebecivil
are the bolded really necessary sir?
Replying a post with insult is now customary on among nigerian youths. It baffles me that we no longer know how to be civil in replying a post. Must we resort to insult? No mater how obvious, fact finding, glaring or beautiful your comment is, the moment you add insultive word(s), it loses substance. Lets learn to respect others opinion and be civil in our comment. We are all here debating on how our leaders are not getting it right, insulting each other will never get us out of the mess we are. lets stop the blame game, lets put out religious, ethnic and political sentiments apart, let us as youth
Thank you so much...you made a lotta sense esp. as regards insulting remarks in various comments
most of d commentators on this forum are either #Istandwithbuhari crew or #Istandwithgej crew... the former would not see anything wrong wit d present administration while d latter fails to see anything commendable in dis govt....objective analysis is really lacking...once this trend continues, d politicians would keep having a field day knowing their lackeys would keep singing their praises...it's very unfortunate
Thank you so much...you made a lotta sense esp. as regards insulting remarks in various comments
most of d commentators on this forum are either #Istandwithbuhari crew or #Istandwithgej crew... the former would not see anything wrong wit d present administration while d latter fails to see anything commendable in dis govt....objective analysis is really lacking...once this trend continues, d politicians would keep having a field day knowing their lackeys would keep singing their praises...it's very unfortunate
the faster we realize this old men do not deserve our votes the better for this country.. we the youths are also to blame for the present condition of this country, all we do is seat back insult one another, while they continue to milk us dry. did you hear of the Romania incident, now that is a country were the youth know their right and also have rights. we are blinded by tribe, religion etc we have a long way to go.. a country were the minister of the countries capital must come from the North, is that one country.
It is not called subsidy my friend. Solomon grandi
Subsidising dollar is when dollar is given at 160 to muslim pilgrims way below the the inter bank rate.
Sufficient dollar in our reserve strenghtens d naira, Truth, calling it subsidy is ignorant of you.
Since the tech is still in Nigeria, what is d current rate of rice, for Ur lame mind goodluck subsidised rice to make it N8000
Bro wer r u from Mars
...plz NLders I want to donate my eyes, Nothin left to see in 9ja
When the FX was fixed, with what did they use to do that? Was it peculiar or in generality? So you think nobody pays for the difference at the rate you had it then?
Just because somebody gives you have access to free internet or you pay at a particular price, you think someone is not paying the difference and what do you call that? Promo abi?
Go and learn basic Economics and English and thank me later.
the faster we realize this old men do not deserve our votes the better for this country.. we the youths are also to blame for the present condition of this country, all we do is seat back insult one another, while they continue to milk us dry. did you hear of the Romania incident, now that is a country were the youth know their right and also have rights. we are blinded by tribe, religion etc we have a long way to go.. a country were the minister of the countries capital must come from the North, is that one country.
my dear, it's really pathetic I must say...wah irks me most is when pple get so defensive(and abusive) about a politician they barely even know but think they know....we really have a long way to go mehn...we just going round in circles until we approach issues relating to governance with open minds
TonyeBarcanista is a Frustrated Ignorant Igbo Bigot. U and ur goons ar d main reason for d backwardness of SS & SE because ,u deliberately refuse to positively enlighten d other children of Hate & baby factory Products hw dis govt is striving hard to redeem d lost Glories frm d 16yrs of PDP governance.
. Obj didn't blame Abacha like this. Abacha left $3bn for Obj. 
